The Diamond Sūtra (Sanskrit: Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra) is a Mahāyāna (Buddhist) sūtra from the Prajñāpāramitā sutras or 'Perfection of Wisdom' genre. Translated into a variety of languages over a broad geographic range, the Diamond Sutra is one of the most influential Mahayana sutras in East Asia, and is particularly prominent within the Chan (or Zen) tradition,[1]
along with the Heart Sutra.

Contents

The Sanskrit title for the sūtra is the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, which may be translated roughly as the "Vajra Cutter Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra" or "The Perfection of Wisdom Text that Cuts Like a Thunderbolt".[1] In English, shortened forms such as Diamond Sūtra and Vajra Sūtra are common. The title relies on the power of the vajra (diamond or thunderbolt, but also an abstract term for a powerful weapon) to cut things as a metaphor for the type of wisdom that cuts and shatters illusions to get to ultimate reality.[1] The sutra is also called by the name "Triśatikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra" (300 lines Perfection of Insight sutra).

The Diamond Sūtra is highly regarded in a number of Asian countries with traditions of Mahāyāna Buddhism.[1] Translations of this title into the languages of some of these countries include:

The exact date of the composition of the Diamond Sutra in Sanskrit is uncertain- arguments for the 2nd and 5th Centuries have been made.[1] The first Chinese translation dates to the early 5th Century, but by this point the 4th or 5th Century monks Asanga and Vasubandhu seem to have already authored authoritative commentaries on its content.[1]

The Vajracchedika sutra was an influential work in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition. Early translations into a number of languages have been found in locations across Central and East Asia, suggesting that the text was widely studied and translated. In addition to Chinese translations, translations of the text and commentaries were made into Tibetan, and translations, elaborations, and paraphrases survive in a number of Central Asian languages.[1]

The first translation of the Diamond Sūtra into Chinese is thought to have been made in 401 by the venerated and prolific translator Kumārajīva.[7] Kumārajīva's translation style is distinctive, possessing a flowing smoothness that reflects his prioritization on conveying the meaning as opposed to precise literal rendering.[8] The Kumārajīva translation has been particularly highly regarded over the centuries, and it is this version that appears on the 868 Dunhuang scroll. It is the most widely used and chanted Chinese version.[9]

In addition to the Kumārajīva translation, a number of later translations exist. The Diamond Sūtra was again translated from Sanskrit into Chinese by Bodhiruci in 509, Paramārtha in 558, Dharmagupta (twice, in 590 and in 605~616), Xuanzang (twice, in 648 and in 660~663), and Yijing in 703.[10][11][12][13]

The Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang visited a Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravāda monastery at Bamiyan, Afghanistan, in the 7th century. Using Xuanzang's travel accounts, modern archaeologists have identified the site of this monastery.[14] Birchbark manuscript fragments of several Mahāyāna sūtras have been discovered at the site, including the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra (MS 2385), and these are now part of the Schøyen Collection.[14] This manuscript was written in the Sanskrit language, and written in an ornate form of the Gupta script.[14] This same Sanskrit manuscript also contains the Medicine Buddha Sūtra (Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhārāja Sūtra).[14]

The Diamond Sūtra gave rise to a culture of artwork, sūtra veneration, and commentaries in East Asian Buddhism. By the end of the Tang Dynasty (907) in China there were over 80 commentaries written on it (only 32 survive), such as those by prominent Chinese Buddhists like Sengzhao, Xie Lingyun, Zhiyi, Jizang, Kuiji and Zongmi.[15][1] Copying and recitation of the Diamond Sutra was a widespread devotional practice, and stories attributing miraculous powers to these acts are recorded in Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, and Mongolian sources.[1]

One of the best known commentaries is the Exegesis on the Diamond Sutra by Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of the Chan School.[16] The Diamond Sutra features prominently in the Platform Sutra, the religious biography of Huineng, where hearing its recitation is supposed to have triggered the enlightening insight that led Huineng to abandon his life as a woodcutter to become a Buddhist monk.[1]

A traditional pocket-sized folding edition of the Diamond Sūtra in Chinese

The Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sutra contains the discourse of the Buddha to a senior monk, Subhuti.[17] Its major themes are anatman (not-self), the emptiness of all phenomena (though the term 'śūnyatā' itself does not appear in the text),[18] the liberation of all beings without attachment and the importance of spreading and teaching the Diamond sutra itself. In his commentary on the Diamond Sūtra, Hsing Yun describes the four main points from the sūtra as giving without attachment to self, liberating beings without notions of self and other, living without attachment, and cultivating without attainment.[19] According to Shigenori Nagamoto the major goal of the Diamond sutra is: "an existential project aiming at achieving and embodying a non-discriminatory basis for knowledge" or "the emancipation from the fundamental ignorance of not knowing how to experience reality as it is."[20]

In the sūtra, the Buddha has finished his daily walk to Sravasti with the monks to gather offerings of food, and he sits down to rest. Elder Subhūti comes forth and asks the Buddha a question: "How, Lord, should one who has set out on the bodhisattva path take his stand, how should he proceed, how should he control the mind?"[21]
What follows is a dialogue regarding the nature of the 'perfection of insight' (Prajñāpāramitā) and the nature of ultimate reality (which is illusory and empty). The Buddha begins by answering Subhuti by stating that he will bring all living beings to final nirvana – but that after this "no living being whatsoever has been brought to extinction".[21] This is because a bodhisattva does not see beings through reified concepts such as 'person', 'soul' or 'self', but sees them through the lens of perfect understanding, as empty of inherent, unchanging self.

The Buddha continues his exposition with similar statements which use negation to point out the emptiness of phenomena, merit, the Dharma (Buddha's teaching), the stages of enlightenment and the Buddha himself. Japanese Buddhologist, Hajime Nakamura, calls this negation the 'logic of not' (Sanskrit: na prthak).[20] Further examples of the Diamond sutra's via negativa include statements such as:[21]

As far as ‘all dharmas’ are concerned, Subhuti, all of them are dharma-less. That is why they are called ‘all dharmas.’

Those so-called ‘streams of thought,’ Subhuti, have been preached by the Tathagata as streamless. That is why they are called ‘streams of thought.’

‘All beings,’ Subhuti, have been preached by the Tathagata as beingless. That is why they are called ‘all beings.’

The Buddha is generally thought to be trying to help Subhūti unlearn his preconceived, limited notions of the nature of reality. Emphasizing that all phenomena are ultimately illusory, he teaches that true enlightenment cannot be grasped until one has set aside attachment to them in any form.[citation needed]

Another reason why the Buddha makes use of negation is because language reifies concepts and this can lead to attachment to those concepts, but true wisdom is seeing that nothing is fixed or stable, hence according to the Diamond sutra thoughts such as "I have obtained the state of an Arhat" or "I will bring living beings to nirvana" does not even occur in an enlightened one's mind because this would be "seizing upon a self...seizing upon a living being, seizing upon a soul, seizing upon a person."[21] Indeed, the sutra goes on to state that anyone who says such things should not be called a bodhisattva. According to David Kalupahana the goal of the Diamond sutra is "one colossal attempt to avoid the extremist use of language, that is, to eliminate any ontological commitment to concepts while at the same time retaining their pragmatic value, so as not to render them totally empty of meaning."[18] Kalupahana explains the negation of the Diamond sutra by seeing an initial statement as an erroneous affirmation of substance or selfhood, which is then critiqued ("'all dharmas' are dharmaless"), and then finally reconstructed ("that is why they are called 'all dharmas'") as being conventional and dependently originated. Kalupahana explains this final reconstruction as meaning: "that each concept, instead of either representing a unique entity or being an empty term, is a substitute for a human experience which is conditioned by a variety of factors. As such, it has pragmatic meaning and communicative power without being absolute in any way."[18] According to Paul Harrison the Diamond sutra's central argument here is that "all dharmas lack a self or essence, or to put it in other words, they have no core ontologically, they only appear to exist separately and independently by the power of conventional language, even though they are in fact dependently originated."[22]

The mind of someone who practices the Prajñāpāramitā or 'perfection of insight' is then a mind free from fixed substantialist or 'self' concepts:

"However, Lord, the idea of a self will not occur to them, nor will the idea of a living being, the idea of a soul, or the idea of a person occur. Why is that? Any such idea of a self is indeed idealess, any idea of a living being, idea of a soul, or idea of a person is indeed idealess. Why is that? Because the Buddhas and Lords are free of all ideas."[21]

Throughout the teaching, the Buddha repeats that successful memorization and elucidation of even a four-line extract of it is of incalculable merit, better than giving an entire world system filled with gifts and can bring about enlightenment. Section 26 also ends with a four-line gatha:

All conditioned phenomena

Are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow,
Like dew or a flash of lightning;
Thus we shall perceive them.”[23]

There is a wood block printed copy in the British Library which, although not the earliest example of block printing, is the earliest example which bears an actual date.

The extant copy is in the form of a scroll about 5 meters (16 ft) long. The archaeologist Sir Marc Aurel Stein purchased it in 1907 in the walled-up Mogao Caves near Dunhuang in northwest China from a monk guarding the caves – known as the "Caves of the Thousand Buddhas".

Reverently made for universal free distribution by Wang Jie on behalf of his two parents on the 13th of the 4th moon of the 9th year of Xiantong [11 May 868].

In 2010 UK writer and historian Frances Wood, head of the Chinese section at the British Library, Mark Barnard, conservator at the British Library, and Ken Seddon, professor of chemistry at Queen's University, Belfast, were involved in the restoration of its copy of the book.[24][25][26] The British Library website allows readers to view the Diamond Sutra in its entirety.[27]

Translation of the Vajracchedikā prajñāpāramitā from Sanskrit. Based on Muller's edition, the first Sanskrit edition published in the West, based on four Sanskrit manuscripts, one from Tibet, one from China, and two from Japan.

The Diamond Sutra: The Perfection of Wisdom; Text and Commentaries Translated from Sanskrit and Chinese

Counterpoint

The Diamond Sutra, translated from the Sanskrit (mostly from the editions by Max Muller and Edward Conze) with selections of Indian and Chán commentary from figures such as Asanga, Vasubandhu, Huineng, Linji and Chiang Wei-nung (1871–1938).

^Harrison, Paul. (2006) 'Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā: A New English Translation of the Sanskrit Text Based on Two Manuscripts from Greater Gandhāra', in Buddhist Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection (Vol. III). Hermes Publishing, Oslo, p.139.

Cole, Alan (2005). Text as Father: Paternal Seductions in Early Mahayana Buddhist Literature, Berkeley: U Cal Press, pp. 160–196. For a close reading of the text's rhetoric, see chapter 4, entitled "Be All You Can't Be, and Other Gainful Losses in the Diamond Sutra."

1.
Woodblock printing
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Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Ukiyo-e is the best known type of Japanese woodblock art print, most European uses of the technique for printing images on paper are covered by the art term woodcut, except for the block-books produced mainly in the 15th century. Prior to the invention of printing, seals and stamps were used for making impressions. The oldest of these came from Mesopotamia and Egypt. A few much larger brick stamps for marking clay bricks survive from Akkad from around 2270 BC. There are also Roman lead pipe inscriptions of some length that were stamped, however none of these used ink, which is necessary for printing, but stamped marks into relatively soft materials. In both China and Egypt, the use of stamps for seals preceded the use of larger blocks. In Europe and India, the printing of cloth certainly preceded the printing of paper or papyrus, the process is essentially the same—in Europe special presentation impressions of prints were often printed on silk until at least the 17th century. The block was cut along the grain of the wood and it is necessary only to ink the block and bring it into firm and even contact with the paper or cloth to achieve an acceptable print. The content would of course print in reverse or mirror-image, a further complication when text was involved, the art of carving the woodcut is technically known as xylography, though the term is rarely used in English. For colour printing, multiple blocks are used, each for one colour, multiple colours can be printed by keying the paper to a frame around the woodblocks. There are three methods of printing to consider, Stamping Used for many fabrics, and most early European woodcuts. These items were printed by putting paper or fabric on a table or a surface with the block on top, and pressing, or hammering. Rubbing Apparently the most common for Far Eastern printing, Used for European woodcuts and block-books later in the 15th century, and very widely for cloth. The block is placed face side up on a table, with the paper or fabric on top, the back of the paper or fabric is rubbed with a hard pad, a flat piece of wood, a burnisher, or a leather frotton. Printing in a press Presses only seem to have used in Asia in relatively recent times. Simple weighted presses may have used in Europe, but firm evidence is lacking. A deceased Abbess of Mechelen in Flanders in 1465 had unum instrumentum ad imprintendum scripturas et ymagines, cum 14 aliis lapideis printis which is probably too early to be a Gutenberg-type printing press in that location

2.
Mahayana
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Mahayana is one of two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice. The Buddhist tradition of Vajrayana is sometimes classified as a part of Mahayana Buddhism, a bodhisattva who has accomplished this goal is called a samyaksaṃbuddha, or fully enlightened Buddha. A samyaksaṃbuddha can establish the Dharma and lead disciples to enlightenment, Mahayana Buddhists teach that enlightenment can be attained in a single lifetime, and this can be accomplished even by a layperson. The Mahāyāna tradition is the largest major tradition of Buddhism existing today, with 53. 2% of practitioners, major traditions of Mahāyāna Buddhism today include Chan Buddhism, Korean Seon, Japanese Zen, Pure Land Buddhism, and Nichiren Buddhism. It may also include the Vajrayana traditions of Tiantai, Tendai, Shingon Buddhism, and Tibetan Buddhism, according to Jan Nattier, the term Mahāyāna was originally an honorary synonym for Bodhisattvayāna — the vehicle of a bodhisattva seeking buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. The term Mahāyāna was therefore formed independently at a date as a synonym for the path. The earliest Mahāyāna texts often use the term Mahāyāna as a synonym for Bodhisattvayāna, the presumed dichotomy between Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna can be deceptive, as the two terms were not actually formed in relation to one another in the same era. Among the earliest and most important references to the term Mahāyāna are those that occur in the Lotus Sūtra dating between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE. Seishi Karashima has suggested that the term first used in an earlier Gandhāri Prakrit version of the Lotus Sūtra was not the term mahāyāna, the origins of Mahāyāna are still not completely understood. The earliest Western views of Mahāyāna assumed that it existed as a school in competition with the so-called Hīnayāna schools. The earliest textual evidence of Mahāyāna comes from sūtras originating around the beginning of the common era. There is also no evidence that Mahāyāna ever referred to a formal school or sect of Buddhism, but rather that it existed as a certain set of ideals. Membership in these nikāyas, or monastic sects, continues today with the Dharmaguptaka nikāya in East Asia, therefore, Mahāyāna was never a separate rival sect of the early schools. Paul Harrison clarifies that while monastic Mahāyānists belonged to a nikāya, from Chinese monks visiting India, we now know that both Mahāyāna and non-Mahāyāna monks in India often lived in the same monasteries side by side. Those who venerate the bodhisattvas and read the Mahayana sūtras are called the Mahāyānists, much of the early extant evidence for the origins of Mahāyāna comes from early Chinese translations of Mahāyāna texts. These Mahāyāna teachings were first propagated into China by Lokakṣema, the first translator of Mahāyāna sūtras into Chinese during the 2nd century CE. Guang Xing states, Several scholars have suggested that the Prajñāpāramitā probably developed among the Mahāsāṃghikas in southern India, in the Āndhra country, warder believes that the Mahāyāna originated in the south of India and almost certainly in the Āndhra country. They note that the ancient Buddhist sites in the lower Kṛṣṇa Valley, including Amaravati, Nāgārjunakoṇḍā and Jaggayyapeṭa can be traced to at least the third century BCE, akira Hirakawa notes the evidence suggests that many Early Mahayana scriptures originated in South India

3.
History of Buddhism in India
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Buddhism is a world religion, which arose in and around the ancient Kingdom of Magadha, and is based on the teachings of Siddhārtha Gautama who was deemed a Buddha. Buddhism spread outside of Magadha starting in the Buddhas lifetime, in modern times, two major branches of Buddhism exist, the Theravāda in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and the Mahāyāna throughout the Himalayas and East Asia. Except for Himalayan region and south India, Buddhism almost became extinct in India after the arrival of Islam in late 12th century, remains have also been found in Andhra Pradesh, the origin of Mahayana Buddhism. According to the 2001 census, Buddhists make up 0. 8% of Indias population, Buddha was born in Lumbini, in Nepal, to a Kapilvastu King of the Shakya Kingdom named Suddhodana. After asceticism and meditation which was a Samana practice, the Buddha discovered the Buddhist Middle Way—a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence, Siddhārtha Gautama attained enlightenment sitting under a pipal tree, now known as the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, India. Gautama, from then on, was known as The Perfectly Self-Awakened One, Buddha found patronage in the ruler of Magadha, emperor Bimbisāra. The emperor accepted Buddhism as personal faith and allowed the establishment of many Buddhist Vihāras and this eventually led to the renaming of the entire region as Bihar. They, together with the Buddha, formed the first Saṅgha, the company of Buddhist monks, and hence, for the remaining years of his life, the Buddha is said to have traveled in the Gangetic Plain of Northern India and other regions. Buddha died in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, followers of Buddhism, called Buddhists in English, referred to themselves as Saugata. Other terms were Sakyans or Sakyabhiksu in ancient India, sakyaputto was another term used by Buddhists, as well as Ariyasavako and Jinaputto. Buddhist scholar Donald S. Lopez states they also used the term Bauddha, the Buddha did not appoint any successor, and asked his followers to work toward liberation. The teachings of the Buddha existed only in oral traditions, the Sangha held a number of Buddhist councils in order to reach consensus on matters of Buddhist doctrine and practice. Mahākāśyapa, a disciple of the Buddha, presided over the first Buddhist council held at Rājagṛha and its purpose was to recite and agree on the Buddhas actual teachings and on monastic discipline. Some scholars consider this council fictitious, the Second Buddhist Council is said to have taken place at Vaiśālī. Its purpose was to deal with questionable monastic practices like the use of money, the drinking of wine, and other irregularities. What is commonly called the Third Buddhist Council was held at Pāṭaliputra, organized by the monk Moggaliputta Tissa, it was held in order to rid the sangha of the large number of monks who had joined the order because of its royal patronage. Most scholars now believe this council was exclusively Theravada, and that the dispatch of missionaries to various countries at about this time was nothing to do with it and it is generally believed to have been a council of the Sarvastivāda school. The Early Buddhist Schools were the schools in which pre-sectarian Buddhism split in the first few centuries after the passing away of the Buddha

4.
Silk Road transmission of Buddhism
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Buddhism entered Han China via the Silk Road, beginning in the 1st or 2nd century CE. Direct contact between Central Asian and Chinese Buddhism continued throughout the 3rd to 7th century, well into Tang period, much of the land route connecting northern India with China at that time was ruled by the Buddhist Kushan Empire, and later the Hephthalite Empire, see Gandhara. China was later reached by the Indian form of tantra esoteric Buddhism in the 7th century, tibetan Buddhism was likewise established as a branch of Vajrayana, in the 8th century. But from about this time, the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism began to decline with the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana, Buddhism was brought to China via the Silk Road. Buddhist monks travelled with merchant caravans on the Silk Road, to preach their new religion, the powerful Greco-Bactrian Kingdoms in Afghanistan and the later Indo-Greek Kingdoms practiced Greco-Buddhism and formed the first stop on the Silk Road, after China, for nearly 300 years. 100 BC, must remain open to question, the earliest direct references to Buddhism concern the 1st century AD, but they include hagiographical elements and are not necessarily reliable or accurate. The first missionaries and translators of Buddhists scriptures into Chinese were either Parthian, Kushan, Sogdian or Kuchean and they promoted both Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna scriptures. Thirty-seven of these early translators of Buddhist texts are known, according to the earliest reference to him, by Yang Xuanzhi, he was a monk of Central Asian origin whom Yang Xuanshi met around 520 at Loyang. Throughout Buddhist art, Bodhidharma is depicted as a rather ill-tempered and he is referred to as The Blue-Eyed Barbarian in Chinese Chan texts. Five monks from Gandhāra who traveled in 485 CE to the country of Fusang, an Shigao translated Buddhist texts on basic doctrines, meditation and abhidharma. An Xuan, a Parthian layman who worked alongside An Shigao, Mahāyāna Buddhism was first widely propagated in China by the Kushan monk Lokakṣema, who came from the ancient Buddhist kingdom of Gandhāra. Lokakṣema translated important Mahāyāna sūtras such as the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, as well as rare, early Mahāyāna sūtras on topics such as samādhi and these translations from Lokakṣema continue to give insight into the early period of Mahāyāna Buddhism. From the 4th century onward, Chinese pilgrims also started to travel on the Silk Road to India, according to Chinese sources, the first Chinese to be ordained was Zhu Zixing, after he went to Central Asia in 260 to seek out Buddhism. It is only from the 4th century CE that Chinese Buddhist monks started to travel to India to discover Buddhism first-hand, faxians pilgrimage to India is said to have been the first significant one. He left along the Silk Road, stayed six years in India, Xuanzang and Hyecho traveled from Korea to India. The most famous of the Chinese pilgrims is Xuanzang, whose large and precise translation work defines a new translation period and he also left a detailed account of his travels in Central Asia and India. The legendary accounts of the holy priest Xuanzang were described in the famous novel Journey to the West, during the fifth and sixth centuries C. E. Merchants played a role in the spread of religion, in particular Buddhism

5.
Chinese Buddhism
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Chinese Buddhism has shaped Chinese culture in a wide variety of areas including art, politics, literature, philosophy, medicine, and material culture. Chinese Buddhism is also marked by the interaction between Indian religions, Nepalese religion Chinese religion, and Taoism, various legends tell of the presence of Buddhism in Chinese soil in very ancient times. Nonetheless, the consensus is that Buddhism first came to China in the first century CE during the Han dynasty. Generations of scholars have debated whether Buddhist missionaries first reached Han China via the maritime or overland routes of the Silk Road, after entering into China, Buddhism blended with early Daoism and Chinese traditional esoteric arts and its iconography received blind worship. A number of accounts in historical Chinese literature have led to the popularity of certain legends regarding the introduction of Buddhism into China. According to the most popular one, Emperor Ming of Han precipitated the introduction of Buddhist teachings into China, the next day he asked his officials, What god is this. The emperor then sent an envoy to Tianzhu to inquire about the teachings of the Buddha, Buddhist scriptures were said to have been returned to China on the backs of white horses, after which White Horse Temple was named. Two Indian monks also returned with them, named Dharmaratna and Kaśyapa Mātaṅga, however, neither the Shiji nor Book of Han histories of Emperor Wu mentions a golden Buddhist statue. The first documented translation of Buddhist scriptures from various Indian languages into Chinese occurs in 148 CE with the arrival of the Parthian prince-turned-monk An Shigao, an Shigao translated Buddhist texts on basic doctrines, meditation, and abhidharma. An Xuan, a Parthian layman who worked alongside An Shigao, Mahāyāna Buddhism was first widely propagated in China by the Kushan monk Lokakṣema, who came from the ancient Buddhist kingdom of Gandhāra. Lokakṣema translated important Mahāyāna sūtras such as the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, as well as rare, early Mahāyāna sūtras on topics such as samādhi and these translations from Lokakṣema continue to give insight into the early period of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Harrison points to the enthusiasm in the Lokakṣema sūtra corpus for the ascetic practices, for dwelling in the forest. The Dharmaguptakas made more efforts than any other sect to spread Buddhism outside India, to such as Afghanistan, Central Asia, and China. Therefore, most countries which adopted Buddhism from China, also adopted the Dharmaguptaka vinaya and ordination lineage for bhikṣus, warder, in some ways in those East Asian countries, the Dharmaguptaka sect can be considered to have survived to the present. They appear to have carried out a vast circling movement along the routes from Aparānta north-west into Iran. The Mahīśāsakas and Kāśyapīyas appear to have followed them across Asia into China, for the earlier period of Chinese Buddhism it was the Dharmaguptakas who constituted the main and most influential school, and even later their Vinaya remained the basis of the discipline there. Initially, Buddhism in China faced a number of difficulties in becoming established, the concept of monasticism and the aversion to social affairs seemed to contradict the long-established norms and standards established in Chinese society. Gentry Buddhism was a medium of introduction for the beginning of Buddhism in China, it gained imperial, by the early 5th century Buddhism was established in south China

6.
Buddhism in Japan
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Buddhism has been practiced in Japan since its official introduction in 552 AD according to the Nihon Shoki from Baekje, Korea by Buddhist monks. Though some Chinese sources place the first spreading of the religion earlier during the Kofun period, Buddhism has had a major influence on the development of Japanese society and remains an influential aspect of the culture to this day. In modern times, Japans most popular schools of Buddhism are Pure Land Buddhism, Nichiren Buddhism, Shingon Buddhism, as of 2008 approximately 34% of the Japanese identify as Buddhists and the number has been growing since the 1980s. In 2009, a survey showed that over half the Japanese families had a butsudan or Buddhist altar in their homes. In 2009 data from the Agency of Cultural Affairs stated that there were 89 million Buddhists in Japan, in 2011, after the Tsunami, it was reported that 90% of the Japanese identified as Buddhist or Shinto or a combination of both. In 2013, official said there were over 87 million Buddhists in Japan. The arrival of Buddhism in Japan is ultimately a consequence of the first contacts between China and Central Asia, where Buddhism had spread from the Indian subcontinent. These contacts occurred with the opening of the Silk Road in the 2nd century BC and these contacts culminated with the official introduction of Buddhism in China in 67 CE. Historians generally agree that by the middle of the 1st century, according to the Book of Liang, which was written in 635, five Buddhist monks from Gandhara traveled to Japan in 467. In former times, the people of Fusang knew nothing of the Buddhist religion and they propagated Buddhist doctrine, circulated scriptures and drawings, and advised the people to relinquish worldly attachments. As a result the customs of Fusang changed, the powerful Soga clan played a key role in the early spread of Buddhism in the country. Initial uptake of the new faith was slow, and Buddhism only started to spread some years later when Empress Suiko openly encouraged the acceptance of Buddhism among all Japanese people. On January 15,593, Soga no Umako ordered relics of Buddha deposited inside the stone under the pillar of a pagoda at Asuka-dera. In 607, in order to obtain copies of sutras, an envoy was dispatched to Sui China. As time progressed and the number of Buddhist clergy increased, the offices of Sōjō, by 627, there were 46 Buddhist temples,816 Buddhist priests, and 569 Buddhist nuns in Japan. These were not exclusive schools, and temples were apt to have scholars versed in several of the schools and it has been suggested that they can best be thought of as study groups. This kind of Buddhism had little to offer the illiterate and uneducated masses and their practice was a combination of Buddhist and Daoist elements and the incorporation of shamanistic features of indigenous practices. Some of these figures became popular, and were a source of criticism towards the sophisticated academic and bureaucratic Buddhism of the capital

7.
Korean Buddhism
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Korean Buddhism is distinguished from other forms of Buddhism by its attempt to resolve what it sees as inconsistencies in Mahayana Buddhism. Early Korean monks believed that the traditions they received from countries were internally inconsistent. To address this, they developed a new approach to Buddhism. Korean Buddhist thinkers refined their predecessors ideas into a distinct form, as it now stands, Korean Buddhism consists mostly of the Seon lineage, primarily represented by the Jogye and Taego Orders. The Korean Seon has a relationship with other Mahayana traditions that bear the imprint of Chan teachings as well as the closely related Zen. Other sects, such as the revival of the Cheontae lineage, the Jingak Order. Korean Buddhism has also contributed much to East Asian Buddhism, especially to early Chinese, Japanese, when Buddhism was originally introduced to Korea from Former Qin in 372, or about 800 years after the death of the historical Buddha, shamanism was the indigenous religion. As it was not seen to conflict with the rites of nature worship, thus, the mountains that were believed to be the residence of spirits in pre-Buddhist times became the sites of Buddhist temples. Korean shamanism held three spirits in especially high regard, Sanshin, Toksong and Chilsong, Korean Buddhism accepted and absorbed these three spirits and, even today, special shrines are set aside for them in many temples. The Mountain Spirit receives particular recognition in an attempt to appease the mountain spirits. This blend of Buddhism and Shamanism became known as Korean Buddhism, during this period, Neo-Confucianism overcame the prior dominance of Buddhism. Only after Buddhist monks helped repel the Japanese invasions of Korea did the persecution of Buddhism, Buddhism in Korea remained subdued until the end of the Joseon period, when its position was strengthened somewhat by the colonial period, which lasted from 1910 to 1945. After World War II, the Seon school of Korean Buddhism once again gained acceptance, a 2005 government survey indicated that about a quarter of South Koreans identified as Buddhist. However, the number of Buddhists in South Korea is ambiguous as there is no exact or exclusive criterion by which Buddhists can be identified. With Buddhisms incorporation into traditional Korean culture, it is now considered a philosophy, as a result, many people outside of the practicing population are deeply influenced by these traditions. Thus, when counting secular believers or those influenced by the faith while not following other religions, the number of Buddhists in South Korea is considered to be much larger. Similarly, in officially atheist North Korea, while Buddhists officially account for 4. 5% of the population, there is concrete evidence of an earlier introduction of Buddhism than traditionally believed. A mid-4th century tomb, unearthed near Pyongyang, is found to incorporate Buddhist motifs in its ceiling decoration, some Korean Buddhist monks traveled to China or India in order to study Buddhism in the late Three Kingdoms Period, especially in the 6th century

8.
Buddhism in Vietnam
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Buddhism in Vietnam as practiced by the ethnic Vietnamese is mainly of the Mahayana tradition. Buddhism may have first come to Vietnam as early as the 3rd or 2nd century BCE from South Asia or from China in the 1st or 2nd century CE, Vietnamese Buddhism has had a symbiotic relationship with certain elements of Taoism, Chinese spirituality, and the Vietnamese folk religion. There are conflicting theories regarding whether Buddhism first reached Vietnam during the 3rd or 2nd century BCE via delegations from India, luy Lâu was the capital of the Han region of Jiaozhi and was a popular place visited by many Indian Buddhist missionary monks en route to China. The monks followed the trade route from the Indian sub-continent to China used by Indian traders. A number of Mahayana sutras and the āgamas were translated into Classical Chinese there, including the Sutra of Forty-two Chapters, Jiaozhi was the birthplace of Buddhist missionary Kang Senghui who was of Sogdian origin. Over the next eighteen centuries, Vietnam and China shared many features of cultural, philosophical. This was due to proximity to one another and Vietnam being annexed twice by China. Vietnamese Buddhism is thus related to Chinese Buddhism in general, Theravada Buddhism, on the other hand, would become incorporated through the southern annexation of Khmer people and territories. During the Đinh dynasty, Buddhism was recognized by the state as an official faith, the Early Lê dynasty also afforded the same recognition to the Buddhist church. The growth of Buddhism during this time is attributed to the recruitment of erudite monks to the court as the independent state needed an ideological basis on which to build a country. Subsequently this role was ceded to Confucianism, Vietnamese Buddhism reached its zenith during the Lý dynasty beginning with the founder Lý Thái Tổ, who was raised in a pagoda. All of the kings during the Lý dynasty professed and sanctioned Buddhism as the state religion and this endured with the Trần dynasty but Buddhism had to share the stage with the emerging growth of Confucianism. By the 15th century, Buddhism fell out of favor with the court during the Later Lê dynasty, officials like Lê Quát attacked it as heretical and wasteful. It was not until the 19th century that Buddhism regained some stature under the Nguyễn dynasty who accorded royal support, the movement continued into the 1950s. From 1954 to 1975, Vietnam was split into North and South Vietnam, in a country where surveys of the religious composition estimated the Buddhist majority to be approximately 50 to 70 percent, President Ngô Đình Diệms policies generated claims of religious bias. As a member of the Catholic Vietnamese minority, he pursued policies that antagonized many Buddhists. This led to widespread protest against the government, troops were sent in and this led to mass rallies against Diệms government, termed as the Buddhist crisis. The conflicts culminated in Thích Quảng Đứcs self-immolation, President Diệms younger brother Ngô Đình Nhu favored strong-armed tactics and Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces engaged in the Xá Lợi Pagoda raids, killing estimated hundreds

9.
Buddhism in Indonesia
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Buddhism in Indonesia has a long history, with a considerable range of relics dated from its earlier years in Indonesia. Buddhism is recognized as one of six religions in Indonesia, along with Islam, Christianity. According to the 2000 national census, roughly 0. 8% of the citizens of Indonesia were Buddhists. Most Buddhists are concentrated in Jakarta, Riau, Riau Islands, Bangka Belitung, North Sumatra, today, most Buddhists in Indonesia are Chinese, however small numbers of native Buddhists are also present. Buddhism is the second oldest religion in Indonesia after Hinduism, arriving around the second century, the history of Buddhism in Indonesia is closely related to the history of Hinduism, as a number of empires influenced by Indian culture were established around the same period. The arrival of Buddhism in the Indonesian archipelago was started with the activity that began in the early of first century on the maritime Silk Road between Indonesia and India. The oldest Buddhist archaeological site in Indonesia is arguably the Batujaya stupas complex in Karawang, the oldest relic in Batujaya was estimated to originate from the 2nd century, while the latest dated from the 12th century. Subsequently, numbers of Buddhist sites were found in Jambi, Palembang, and Riau provinces in Sumatra, Indonesian archipelago has witnessed the rise and fall of powerful Buddhist empires such as the Sailendra dynasty, the Mataram and Srivijaya empires. According to some Chinese source, a Chinese Buddhist monk I-tsing on his journey to India. The empire served as a Buddhist learning center in the region, a notable Srivijayan revered Buddhist scholar is Dharmakirti, a Srivijayan prince of the Sailendra dynasty, born around the turn of the 7th century in Sumatra. He became a revered scholar-monk in Srivijaya and moved to India to become a teacher at the famed Nalanda University and he built on and reinterpreted the work of Dignaga, the pioneer of Buddhist Logic, and was very influential among Brahman logicians as well as Buddhists. His theories became normative in Tibet and are studied to this day as a part of the monastic curriculum. Other Buddhist monks that visited Indonesia were Atisha, Dharmapala, a professor of Nalanda, Srivijaya was the largest Buddhist empire ever formed in Indonesian history. During the era of Kediri, Singhasari and Majapahit empire, buddhism — identified as Dharma ri Kasogatan — was acknowledged as one of kingdoms official religions along with Hinduism, in the 13th century Islam entered the archipelago, and began gaining foothold in coastal port towns. The fall of Hindu-Buddhist Majapahit empire in late 15th century marked the end of dharmic civilization dominance in Indonesia, by the end of the 16th century, Islam had supplanted Hinduism and Buddhism as the dominant religion of Java and Sumatra. After that for 450 years, there is no significant Buddhist adherence and practice in Indonesia, many of Buddhist sites, stupas, temples, and manuscripts are lost or forgotten, as the region has become more predominantly Muslim. Many of klenteng in Indonesia are in fact a temple that houses three faiths, namely Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. In 1934, Narada Thera, a monk from Sri Lanka

10.
Buddhism in Malaysia
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Sri Dhammananda and a sizeable population of Malaysian Indians. Buddhism was introduced to the Malays and also to the people of the Malay Archipelago as early as 200 BCE, Chinese written sources indicated that some 30 small Indianised states rose and fell in the Malay Peninsula. Malay-Buddhism began when Indian traders and priests traveling the maritime routes and brought with them Indian concepts of religion, government, however, the Malay Kedah Kingdom denounced Indian religion after the king of Chola from Tamil Nadu attacked them in the early 11th century. According to the Malaysian constitution, the majority group, the Malays, are legally defined as Muslim. They constitute 60% of the population, with the remainder consisting mostly of Chinese, who are generally Buddhists or Christians, and to the lesser extent Indians, who are generally Hindus. There are also numbers of other indigenous and immigrants, among the latter are Malaysians of Sinhalese, Thai. Nearly all of the Buddhists in Malaysia live in urban areas, groups involved in these education efforts include the Buddhist Missionary Society. In response to needs, religious practices are carried out. Efforts are made to explain why sutras are chanted, lamps lit, flowers offered, as a religion without a supreme head to direct its development, Buddhism is practised in various forms, which, although rarely in open conflict, can sometimes lead to confusion among Buddhists. In Malaysia, some ecumenical moves have made to coordinate the activities of different types of Buddhists. In 2013, a video of a group of Buddhist practitioner from Singapore conducting religious ceremonies in a surau had become viral on Facebook, Malaysian police have arrested a resort owner after he allowed 13 Buddhists to use a Muslim prayer room for their meditation at Kota Tinggi, Johor. The incident has been a frown upon Muslims in Malaysia and it has also become a hot topic in the social media. At the time, Syed Ahmad Salim, the owner explained that he had allowed the group of Buddhists to use the surau for a meditation session as he was unaware that it was an offence. According to the 2010 Census,5,620,483 people or 19. 8% of the population identify themselves as Buddhists. Most Chinese Malaysian follow a combination of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and ancestor-worship but, as a result,83. 6% of all the Chinese Malaysian self-identifying as Buddhist. Information collected in the based on respondents answer and did not refer to any official document. In Search of Nirvana, in, Sacred Tensions, Modernity, young Buddhist Association Of Malaysia Soka Gakkai Malaysia

11.
Tibetan Buddhism
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Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet, the regions surrounding the Himalayas and much of Central Asia. It derives from the latest stages of Indian Buddhism and preserves the Tantric status quo of eighth-century India, Tibetan Buddhism aspires to Buddhahood or rainbow body. Religious texts and commentaries comprise the Tibetan Buddhist canon, such that Tibetan is a language of these areas. Among its prominent exponents is the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, the number of its adherents is estimated to be between ten and twenty million. Westerners unfamiliar with Tibetan Buddhism initially turned to China for an understanding, there the term used was lamaism to distinguish it from a then traditional Chinese form. The term was taken up by scholars including Hegel, as early as 1822. Insofar as it implies a discontinuity between Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, the term has been discredited, another term, Vajrayāna is occasionally used mistakenly for Tibetan Buddhism. More accurately, it signifies a certain subset of practices included in, not only Tibetan Buddhism, the native Tibetan term for all Buddhism is doctrine of the internalists. There is an association between the religious and the secular the spiritual and the temporal in Tibet. The term for this relationship is chos srid zung brel, in the west the term Indo-Tibetan Buddhism has become current, in acknowledgement of its derivation from the latest stages of Buddhist development in northern India. Tibetan Buddhism comprises the teachings of the three vehicles of Buddhism, the Foundational Vehicle, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna, the Mahāyāna goal of spiritual development is to achieve the enlightenment of buddhahood in order to most efficiently help all other sentient beings attain this state. The motivation in it is the mind of enlightenment — an altruistic intention to become enlightened for the sake of all sentient beings. Bodhisattvas are revered beings who have conceived the will and vow to dedicate their lives with bodhicitta for the sake of all beings, Tibetan Buddhism teaches methods for achieving buddhahood more quickly by including the Vajrayāna path in Mahāyāna. Buddhahood is defined as a free of the obstructions to liberation as well as those to omniscience. When one is freed from all mental obscurations, one is said to attain a state of continuous bliss mixed with a simultaneous cognition of emptiness, in this state, all limitations on ones ability to help other living beings are removed. It is said there are countless beings who have attained buddhahood. Buddhas spontaneously, naturally and continuously perform activities to all sentient beings. However it is believed that ones karma could limit the ability of the Buddhas to help them, there is a long history of oral transmission of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism

12.
Inner Mongolia
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Its capital is Hohhot, and other major cities include Baotou, Chifeng, and Ordos. It is the third largest subdivision of China, spanning approximately 1,200,000 km2 or 12% of Chinas total land area and it recorded a population of 24,706,321 in the 2010 census, accounting for 1. 84% of Mainland Chinas total population. Inner Mongolia is the countrys 23rd most populous province-level division, the majority of the population in the region is Han Chinese, with a sizeable titular Mongol minority. In Chinese, the region is known as Inner Mongolia, where the terms of Inner/Outer are derived from Manchu dorgi/tulergi. The term Inner 内 referred to the Nei Fan 内番, i. e. those descendants of Genghis Khan who granted the title khan in Ming and Qing Dynasties and lived in part of southern part of Mongolia. In recent years, some Mongols began to call Inner Mongolia Nan Menggu, literally South Mongolia, much of what is known about the history of Greater Mongolia, including Inner Mongolia, is known through Chinese chronicles and historians. Slab Grave cultural monuments are found in northern, central and eastern Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, north-western China, Mongolian scholars prove that this culture related to the Proto-Mongols. During the Zhou Dynasty, central and western Inner Mongolia were inhabited by peoples such as the Loufan, Linhu. During the Warring States period, King Wuling of the state of Zhao based in what is now Hebei, after destroying the Dí state of Zhongshan in what is now Hebei province, he defeated the Linhu and Loufan and created the commandery of Yunzhong near modern Hohhot. King Wuling of Zhao also built a long wall stretching through the Hetao region and he also maintained two commanderies in the region, Jiuyuan and Yunzhong, and moved 30,000 households there to solidify the region. After the Qin Dynasty collapsed in 206 BC, these efforts were abandoned, during the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu sent the general Wei Qing to reconquer the Hetao region from the Xiongnu in 127 BC. After the conquest, Emperor Wu continued the policy of building settlements in Hetao to defend against the Xiong-Nu, in that same year he established the commanderies of Shuofang and Wuyuan in Hetao. At the same time, what is now eastern Inner Mongolia was controlled by the Xianbei, during the Eastern Han Dynasty, Xiongnu who surrendered to the Han Dynasty began to be settled in Hetao, and intermingled with the Han immigrants in the area. Hetao was then taken over by the Khitan Empire, founded by the Khitans and they were followed by the Western Xia of the Tanguts, who took control of what is now the western part of Inner Mongolia. The Khitans were later replaced by the Jurchens, precursors to the modern Manchus, after Genghis Khan unified the Mongol tribes in 1206 and founded the Mongol Empire, the Tangut Western Xia empire was ultimately conquered in 1227, and the Jurchen Jin dynasty fell in 1234. In 1271, Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan established the Yuan dynasty, Kublai Khans summer capital Shangdu was located near present-day Dolonnor. During that time Ongud and Khunggirad peoples dominated the area of what is now Inner Mongolia, after the Yuan dynasty was overthrown by the Han-led Ming dynasty in 1368, the Ming captured parts of Inner Mongolia including Shangdu and Yingchang. The Ming rebuilt the Great Wall of China at its present location, the Ming established the Three Guards composed of the Mongols there